Sunday, October 30, 2011

Ashbash and I have decided to write a book. Not anything fancy, just an economics and regression book for college kids. You know, real life examples to understand some of these ridiculous concepts.

What prompted this plan? Oh, this:

What is that? Good question.

Well, we were having a discussion about sandwiches and how the filling is always made better when you add bread. But things got complicated, so we had to write it out, with a utility function.

What was produced? The above ridiculousness that clearly shows that bread is better than the inside of a sandwich and the bread plus the filling is better than the filling alone. But, whether the bread is better than the sandwich as a whole is dependent on the quality of the bread.

We later added that this is complicated by a spreadable filling (aka guac, pb, etc.) since you would not eat it without bread...

Friday, October 28, 2011

Now, I was a girl scout. Yup, adorable I know. And I loved being one because it was awesome, obvi.

But everyone knows what the best part of girl scouts are: the cookies!

And we tease you with them, only selling them but once a year. You have to order them ahead of time and wait and then, when they are gone, you have to wait like 11 more months to get more...let's be honest thin mints don't last long in my house.

I'm sure most people have figured out by this point that no girl scouts are making these sweet treats. We outsource like good Americans. (yeah i said it, get over it.) But unlike other American orgs outsourcing factory labor, we actually get very little profit from our endeavor. The cost of producing these delicious confections is quite high and local troops only receive about 10-15% of the purchase price of a box.

Now, I've known for a while that Keebler sold thin-mint knock offs, knock offs I try to ignore every trip to the grocery store. But I was quite surprised to recently find them now selling for-profit somoas! (my personal favorite girl scout cookie).

I was so upset.

One of all: how am I suposed to avoid this temptation on a regular basis? It's just rude elf. Very rude.

Two of all: Um, hello?! How many people are going to keep buying girl scout cookies when they can get them for a dollar cheaper year round in the cookie isle of their local mega mart? They are not only increasing competition for our fine product, but decreasing demand. ugh. No respect from the (little) man.

So please people, for the benefit of your waistline and local troops, buy your girl scout cookies from a girl scout!

Monday, October 24, 2011

softball. yup I said it. a team sport. no don't worry, I wasn't playing. But I was a team mom! Some of my friends decided it was a good idea to join a local softball league, we signed up for the lowest difficulty level, obvi.

Well turns out that for Durham, the lowest difficulty league is still ridiculous. I mean these teams are good. They practice! Shocking I know. But hey, we put out a good effort for the season and everyone had fun. And, though we may not have won a game, we at least did disprove our team name and score many hits!

But back to the crafty side of things, the team moms made the jerseys for our adorable players. It took all day but they turned out awesome, as you can see.

How did we do it? Oh, screen printing obvi. Megan took a class last year and had all of the supplies. The real pain is cutting the screen. And since we were making jerseys we had to also cut out all the numbers for the backs and then switch out the screens for each t-shrit. The fronts went much faster though.

Some points of advice: make sure the shirts are properly centered before screening them, keep in mind how this works with the shape of your screen. We had some nice first runs...
Also, pick an easy design, not too much swirly stuff for easy cutting.
Finally make sure your screens stay clean from the paint on the underside so you don't get paint in unintended places.

Yup. That's all I've got. It was pretty straight forward so pick up a book and stop by the local craft store and get to screening!

Friday, October 21, 2011

If you recall, back to school fashion has been quite dismal at UNC this fall. This is quite frustrating, because, as Ashbash pointed out, it could be so much better, as evident by other schools that seem to value decency and effort in what they wear.

But alas, we are left with continuing modifications on the outdated and weaksauce workout outfit. I thought, incorrectly of course, that with the coming cold weather, sorority sisters would need to trade in their over-priced running shorts and mid-calf athletic socks for something a little more appropriate.

I was wrong.

Please take note of a recent disaster I had to witness:

Yes, it is a sorority long-sleeved shirt, with those same damn shorts and socks, but now to deal with the cold: leggings have been added!

Disgusting.

I mean really, it's just terrible. And to make matters worse, but I'm sure to no one's surprise, they aren't actually going to workout. Lisa found out that at UNC undergrads are only allowed to take one physical activity class! Now this is absolutely awful from a health standpoint but also makes it clear that there is no justification for leaving the house and strutting around campus all day in this outfit or any of its adaptations.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Fall is finally here. Yup. It's time to pack away those bathing suits, summer cocktails, and sun hats and trade them in for boots, scarves, and warm apple cider.

Now, I had a pretty nice summer. And I'm partial to the sun, as is any good California girl. And though I always appreciate and enjoy the fall season, I was a little extra sad to see summer retire this year. I'm not sure if it's because fall means winter is close behind, or if I wanted to wear that new bathing suit I just got at the jcrew warehouse sale for $5 (yes people now that I've gone you are free to dig through boxes and find your own steals, here is a guide to prepare yourself) but no matter the reason I was not eager to switch out my summer scarves for the warmer variety.

Until... I saw the essie fall 2011 line.Then everything changed and the thoughts of dark nail polish, sweaters, and crisp air danced in my head.

I stopped by target as I'm known to do and picked up power clutch, a slightly greenish dark grey. Needless to say I'm in love. Sorry bordeaux, you'll have to take a backseat to power clutch this year.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

zucchini. a solid vegetable if you ask me. now you may be wondering, hasn't she already made zucchini pizza? Why yes I have, many times in fact, but this is a different variety:

Zucchini is the crust.

Now there are many varieties of this, usually with larger squashes so that the slices resemble a pizza a bit more, but I'm quite partial to the zucchini so I went with it.

It is pretty easy to make: slice up your zuchini for starters. Then i drizzled some oil from sun-dried tomatoes and added a couple of those to each 'slice'. (I don't know why I put this in quotes since, even if not from a pizza, they are still slices of zucchini...). Moving on though. Then top each slice with a piece of pepperoni and grate some parm on top.

I baked my at 375 for 15 minutes until the zucchini slices were nice and roasted.

Now the beauty of this is of course that you can top a slice of squash with anything - sauce, more cheese, bacon, onions, you name it. Basically anything you would put on an actual pizza... That's kind of the point. But now you have an awesome veggie as your crust for some variety. Don't fear, this is not an attempt to decrease the carbs in my life, I love those way too much to even think anything so ridiculous; this is just a way to jazz up a mighty fine gourd!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I haven't been in my new apt that long, and given that school is very much in session, I haven't had a lot of time to cook or even plan to cook. Well one night I found myself with a bit of time (shocking I know) and wanted to whip something up, but of course had limited fresh supplies.

Not to fear, I always have a well stocked freezer and pantry. And after some digging I decided to make black bean burgers. I had never made black bean burgers before, and didn't have a recipe, but I figured, how hard can it be to make a patty, right? Right, actually, here is what I came up with and it's pretty friggin tasty.

What to do:
1. Pull out that handy dandy food processor and get ready to fill it up:
2. Drain the can of black beans but don't rinse, add to the processor along with a scant cup of corn, 1 shallot roughly chopped, and two cloves of garlic, also roughly chopped.

3. To that add: one chipotle pepper, 1/4 cup (or to taste) of pickled jalapenos, and a hearty seasoning of each of the aforementioned spices.

4. Top it off with an egg, a dash of lime juice, 1/8 cup of coffee, a few dashes of Tabasco, and about two cups of cornbread in pieces.

5. Put that mixer to work; stopping to scrape the sides and bottoms. It should look, well kind of gross, like processed beans do, or baby food...but trust me its tasty.

6. Meanwhile you should have been preheating your oven to 350, sorry about that. Pull out a sheet pan and give it a good spray with some canola oil or something. Then take a handy disher and dish away. I like all things mini (as you know) so I went with the slider size patties, if you want to make a proper burger sized patty go for it!

7. Bake them off for 15 minutes then pull out and top with cheese if desired. Pop back in the oven for another 2 minutes and then you are ready to eat. I went ahead and froze half of them and stuck the rest in the fridge for easy lunches throughout the week.

*To reheat from fridge microwave two for 1 minute. From the freezer microwave for 1 minute then add the cheese and mircrowave for another minute.

Also, Lisa finally came back, so Ashley had to take advantage of her perfect braid hair and test out some good ones. Ashley can do this like barrel fishtail with very thin chunks, it's awesome. But I have no idea how she does it.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

I recently went to Parker and Otis in Durham. It's delicious and charming, obvi. If you're from the triangle think of a hipper more tasty Fosters. The food is awesome and it has a store (yes, like cracker barrel but way cuter).

Anywho, I had the side plate with chicken curry salad, roasted vegetable tortallini salad, and pesto pasta. Oh and a cheddar biscuit, duh. (the best part).

Megan already knew what she was ordering before she got there: their monthly sandwich, wheat bread, bacon, bananas, honey, and peanut butter. I stole a bite and it was heaven in the mouth. So when I got home I clearly needed to make this.

What you need: wheat bread, banana, bacon, peanut butter, and honey.

Unfortunately I was low on bread and had to use a wheat hamburger bun (it worked fine). Load up each side with some PB and Honey and top it with bacon and bananas, delicious, I promise.

A bit too much bread (dare I say it) with the bun but still friggin yummy in my tummy.